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Business & Industry Forsyth County News —Thursday, March 11,2004 Business notes Buckhead Brewer)’ & drill Inc. ... announces the purchase of its sixth location in Coastal Dunes Mall in Myrtle Beach. S.C. The company is known for its restaurants’ distinctive post-and-beam. log cabin architecture creating an Aspen Lodge atmosphere built from Wisconsin hardwood w ith rock fire places and antler fixtures. It currently operates four locations, including Cumming, Alpharetta. Stockbridge and Peachtree City. It is planning another Atlanta-area location by the end of this year, and has target ed sites in Nashville, Tenn., and Charlotte. N.C., for future locations. Applications now are being accepted ... for Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program loans. Deadline is May 14. The program, administered by USDA-Rural Development, is designed to increase the supply of moderately-priced housing in rural areas and to foster risk-sharing part nerships with public and private lenders. Funds may be used to build new housing, purchase and improve land needed for development. Complete program details are available in the Feb. 6 Federal Register. "Responses to the Feb. 6 notice will be accepted until May 14, or after if all the funds haven't been allocated,” said Wayne Rogers, program director of Multi-Family Housing for USDA- Rural Development. For more infor mation. call (706) 546-2164. Better Business Bureau ... will present its annual 888 International Torch Aw ard for Marketplace Ethics. Deadline for entries is April 12. The award honors businesses that demonstrated exceed ingly high standards of behavior toward customers, employees, suppli ers. shareholders and communities; adherence to truthful and honorable advertising and sales practices; and. an earned reputation for noteworthy con tributions to their industries and the communities in which they do busi ness. For more information or to nomi nate a company or firm, go to the Council of Better Business Bureau's Web site at www.bbb.org and click on “International Torch Aw ards." Nigerian scam criminals ... are using the Better Business Bureau name to create the illusion of legitimacy, the 888 reports. The Nigerian scam has operated worldwide since the 1980 s. The swindlers, typically from West African countries, pose as corrupt officials w ith control over millions of treasury dollars they want to transfer to a for eign bank. They reel in consumers w illing to pay to help abscond with the fictitious loot so they can collect a por tion of the proceeds. For more infor mation, call (404) 559-1555. Angel Ros Fine Artist Studio ... was scheduled to sponsor an opening reception Wednesday of this week. The studio is located inside In & Out Photo. 550 Atlanta Road in Cumming. For more information, cal) (770)889-7305. Crescent Banking Co. ... has announced its board of directors has approved a payment of the company’s 30th consecutive quar terly cash dividend. The dividend of 8 cents per share is payable on March 19 to common stock shareholders of record on March 9. The company’s net income for the year totaled $17.3 million, which rep resented net income per share on a basic and fully diluted basis of $7.07 and $6.74, respectively. Marine Corps Pvt. Robert L. Burchfield Jr. ... son of Liz Sosebee of Alpharetta and Robert Burchfield of Cumming, recently completed 12 weeks of basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot. Parris Island. S. C., designed to challenge new Marine recruits both physically and mentally. Burchfield and fellow recruits began their training at 5 a. m.. by run ning three miles and performing calis thenics. In addition to the physical conditioning program. Burchfield spent numerous hours in classroom and field assignments which included teaming first aid. uniform regulations, combat water survival, marksmanship, See NOTES, Page 2B ■■AbAM " I i w - ' Above, Tammy Slagle | pressure washes the front L w «■' parking lot of the new J PH Publix supermarket on Friday to prepare for the Saturday opening. Right. from left. Mike Andrews. f’. assistant manager of the 40? new Publix off Hwy 306. welcomes Haley 4. and W Shannon Simpson into ‘ the new store on W Saturday. Below, from left Cathy Edison spins the Star 94 prize wheel out- side of the new Publix as \ radio station employees IB Mike Moshure and Marcie I O Mulkey look on. B * 1 Photos. David McGregor F~ .'lWi4ds7 r HHS tn J&t I B L‘ ’J t JmEI H —■_ - Knox says tort reform bills won’t fix problem By Nicole Green Staff Writer So far the state Legislature has yet to introduce problem-solving tort reform legislation, according to state Rep. Tom Knox. R-Cumming. “There are good facts and good information on both sides of the debate, and I’m not sure any of the bills fix the problem,” Knox said. Tort reform has become the assumed solution for soaring health care costs. Increased malpractice insurance premiums are blamed for high doctor bills. High insurance premiums are blamed on the num ber of malpractice lawsuits filed against physicians and the amount of damages awarded. The Medical Association of Georgia (MAG) promotes a $250,000 cap on damages awarded for pain and suffering in a malprac- New Publix opens HMMH l * cc ' aw suit. Os the three j ' W reform bills in the K I House, none pro- S *" £■ poses a cap on B ♦ damages. MAG says the bills I would be ineffec live. wJmmWWI “For the sake of iz__ w °ur patients, the physician members of the Medical Association of Georgia are steadfastly committed to meaningful reforms and we will not settle for window dressing.” said Michael E. Greene, MAG president, in a March 3 statement. House Bill 1396 protects hospi tals from liability for civil damages incurred by independent contract physicians. However, if the contract physician does not carry a specified level of malpractice insurance sl million per occurrence and $3 mil lion in aggregate coverage the hospital is liable for all damages. House Bill 1399 redefines who can testify as an expert witness in a medical mal practice suit. MAG claims that the bill would weaken standards for expert witnesses and increase cost of litigation. House Bill 1400 nunishes I TUU pull i 311V3 attorneys for fil ing "frivolous lawsuits." MAG asserts that HB 1400 would be negated by the lax standards for expert witnesses in HB 1399. Knox says these bills are a watered down version of tort Georgia economy remains stable Retail sales show some improvement By Todd Truelove Staff Writer Officials from the Federal Reserve Bank report that the economy in the southeast United States continues to show modest improvements. John Robertson, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said retail sales throughout the state of Georgia and in metro Atlanta since the beginning of 2004 are more than those recorded a year ago in most areas of the market. “Consumer spending, in Georgia and Atlanta, was pretty solid with the exception of auto sales," Robertson said. "Women’s apparel, jewelry and home appliance sales were strongest." He said though some brands of auto sales are less than those recorded in 2003, the auto industry as a whole is coming off record level sales from last year. Prices throughout the market and the rate of inflation remain stable. However, Robertson said steel and petro leum product prices are rising. “Overall, the inflation rate was low and stable,” he said, "but we have heard reports of some very significant increases in the prices of some raw materials particularly steel and petroleum products.” “We’ve already seen that [petroleum increase] at the [gas] pump." he said. In addition. Robertson said Consumer businesses remain cautious cncmrllnn in about adding employees to com- in pany payrolls particularly in Georgia and the clothing manufacturing Atlanta, WOS industry where some businesses pretty Solid d ° s ' n 8 “ nd la! " ns " ff with the ex- “It seems that hiring is still ception of very tentative." he said. OUtO Sales... "Some of our contacts in the durable, manufacturing produc ers of industry equipment were reporting increased production and, in some cases, recalling workers,” Robertson said. “That wasn't the majority. Apparel producers are still worried about viability." “Manufacturing has been on a slow improving trend over the last few months coming from a low base after declining over four years," he said. Real estate is moderate in residential construction and sales but “the commercial side is still pretty weak," Robertson said. “As you drive up [Ga.] 400 there are still a lot of empty office spaces.” Robertson said. “Vacancy rates are still high, but in the Atlanta area they have come down from the peak. It does appear that they’re improving." Robertson said. The economy as a whole seems to be improving, he said. “I think the outlook from our contacts was generally upbeat." Robertson said. “Most viewed that the worst was behind them. The prospects are quite right [to improve], but they [businesses] are still approaching the future quite cautiously." “[ln the southeast], Georgia’s economy is probably right in the middle,” he said. “[We are] doing better per haps than Alabama, but Florida’s economy right now is quite robust. [Florida] doesn't have the manufacturing J dependency Georgia has.” reform. The resolution for high health care costs lies somewhere in an economics textbook. “1 think nart of the nrohlem is IVUVIIIIV3 WIIV 1 UIIIIK pdl "/ think part of the problem is that govern ment is so heavily involved in the medical provider system...No one can compete with the government.. have caused to increase," Knox said. “As usual, most things go back to economics,” he said. HB 1396, 1399 and 1400 are on See TORT, Page 2B u vi uic piuuicm 13 that government is so heavily involved in the medical provider system ...No one can com pete with the gov ernment, and the government is now competing with itself. They can’t af-ford to pay the prices that they